Azad Kashmir Elections 2011

On Sunday, June 26, 2011, Assembly Election on 37 seats were held. Total seats were 41 but election postponed due to poor law & order on 4 constituencies of Karachi Lahore & Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

AJK Assembly consists of 41 elected Members and 8 co-opted members (Reserved Seats) of which 5 are ladies, one member from Ullema-e-Din or Mushaikh, while one is from amongst Jammu & Kashmir technocrats and other professionals, whereas one is from amongst Jammu and Kashmir nationals (state subjects) residing abroad.

Prime Minister is elected by the members of legislative Assembly. He is the Chief Executive of the State, whereas the President is the constitutional head of State.

The pattern of the State of Azad Jammu and Kashmir is almost the same which is prevailing in Pakistan with the exception that in Azad Jammu and Kashmir there exists a Council with Prime Minister of Pakistan as the Chairman, 6 elected members, 3 ex-officio Members including President AJK (Vice- Chairman of the Council), Prime Minister of AJK or his nominee, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs, and 5 Members to be nominated by the Prime Minister of Pakistan from amongst the Federal Ministers and Members of the Parliament. The Council has been assigned a specified field of activities and it has also further assigned some of the functions to the Central Government in Pakistan. Such as, the Defence, Security, Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Currency and Coins which are the responsibilities of the Government of Pakistan.

This Assembly comprises of 49 members and the distribution of seats is as under:

Seats Distribution

Number of Seats

Azad Kashmir

29 Elected

Refugees settled in Pakistan

12 Elected

Ladies

5 Reserved

Ulama and Mushaikh

1 Reserved

Overseas Kashmiris

1 Reserved

Technocrat

1 Reserved

Total

49

Names of Area

Male Voters

Female Voters

Total Voters

AJK + Jammu + Valley

1494822

1348033

2842855

This Assembly has elected Chaudhry Abdul Majeed as Prime Minister, while the Joint sitting elected Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan as President Azad Jammu & Kashmir. The Legislative Assembly elected its Speaker, Sardar Ghulam Sadiq Khan, on 25th July, 2011.